κόλπος

Forms

κόλπος (kólpos) m (genitive κόλπου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[1] Beekes and Frisk consider a link with Germanic words for “to vault”: κόλπος would be a verbal noun matching Old Norse hvalf and Old English hwealf (“vault”), from the verb seen in Old High German welben (“to vault”) and hvelfa, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷelp- (“to curve, arch”), *kʷolp-o-.^[2][3] This requires the labiovelar to have been dissimilated before the labial /p/, since Greek would otherwise have a form with initial /p/; van Beek accepts such a dissimilation.^[2][1] Wiktionary notes that the meanings are distant, and Beekes and Frisk point out that Pindar's “folds of the sky” need not match the Old English “vault of heaven”, since the Greek image is that of a bosom.^[1][2][3] Another proposal, if the first sense was “crevice”, connects a verb “to cut, cleave”.^[1]

Ancient grammarians derived it from κοῖλος (koîlos, “hollow”).^[4]

It was borrowed as Vulgar Latin colphus, whence Italian golfo and French golfe.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is the fold of a garment over the girdle and the lap or bosom it covers, where a mother or nurse holds a child; it also names a deep bay of the sea.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

The fold of a robe served as a pocket for carrying or hiding things, and people spat into it to avert evil, a habit Theophrastus mocks.^[6][5] The bosom was a place of shelter for children and pet animals, and Luke's Gospel speaks of “Abraham's bosom”, the place of the righteous dead; in John's Gospel the beloved disciple reclines on Jesus' breast.^[5][8]

From the hollow came many other uses: a bay or gulf, named in Aeschylus and Herodotus; a valley or hollow of the land; the folds of a sail swelled by the wind; in poetry the womb, and in the medical writers the vagina, the sinuses of the womb and other cavities of the body, and a fistulous ulcer under the skin.^[5][2]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept the word.^[9] Today Modern Greek κόλπος (kólpos) is a learned word: the bay or gulf, cavities of the body in anatomy, and the bosom in literary style.^[10] A homonymous Modern Greek κόλπος “stroke, blow” comes from Italian colpo.^[10][11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for the lap and bosom, the fold of a garment, and a bay.^[5][6][7]
• 6th century BC – Theognis has the image of a snake kept in the bosom.^[5][12]
• 5th century BC – Aeschylus and Herodotus name gulfs such as the Malian Gulf with it.^[5][12]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament speaks of “Abraham's bosom”.^[5][8]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Soranus uses it for the vagina and the sinuses of the womb.^[5][12]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek κόλπος (kólpos) is chiefly a gulf or bay, or a cavity of the body.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The Fold of a garment where it hangs over the girdle, used as a pocket.^[5][6]
2. The Bosom, lap, or breast, where a child or animal is held.^[5][6][8]
3. A bay or gulf of the sea.^[5][6]
4. Any hollow: a valley, the swelling fold of a sail.^[5][2]
5. (poetic) The womb.^[5]
6. (medicine) The vagina, or another cavity of the body.^[5]
7. (medicine) A fistulous ulcer under the skin.^[2]

Word family

• βαθύκολπος (bathúkolpos)
• μελανόκολπος (melanókolpos)
• κολπόω (kolpóō)
• κολπώδης (kolpṓdēs)
• ἐγκόλπιος (enkólpios)
• ὑποκόλπιος (hupokólpios)

Related words

• Vulgar Latin colphus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge